these mountains and hills in which they have been scattered. "I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shall make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel." Isa. 41:15, 16. This sharp threshing-instrument is nothing else than God's holy ministry with the eternal truth. The mountains of Babylon were to be threshed and beaten small, in order that God's people may be gathered therefrom. We are living in that time, and the ransomed of the Lord are returning to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads (Isa. 35:10). In the morning glory of the church God's people abode in and enjoyed the blessings of Mount Zion; but false teachers led them away, and for centuries they were scattered, as the foregoing scriptures declare. In these last days, how ever, the people of God are privileged to return and to enjoy the same government, organization, purity, oneness, and power enjoyed by the primitive church. And as the ministers of God assemble in these last days in the heights of Zion, they blow the trumpet of eternal truth to all the nations of the earth, and this trumpet assembles together all who are willing to meet the requisite conditions and requirements of the gospel. This prepares the church for the coming of the Lord. "Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel 2:1. God sends forth his messengers and every honest soul is gathered. "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." Jer. 16:16. Thus are God's people in these last days gathered from the holes of sin and deception in which they have been lodging, and with singing and rejoicing they are brought home to Zion, to the mountain of the Lord. Here upon the mountain of God's own holiness we stand with our souls illuminated by the brilliant, transplendent glory of the setting sun in this blessed evening light. We stand upon the summit of the same Zion, the same mount of God's own holiness-the church of the living God-upon which the early church stood and found a place of refuge. The Primitive Church a Triumphant Church. In Babylon theology we hear much of the church militant here below and the church triumphant over in heaven; but the dwellers in Zion have found the church triumphant here on earth and reign therein over every foe. True, there are battles to fight and enemies to conquer, and this proves a militant state of the church; but "thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ." 2 Cor. 2:14. Yes, always. And this triumphant state is not confined to heaven, but right here on earth "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37). Yes, "they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign. in life by one, Jesus Christ." Rom. 5: 17. These texts beautifully express the victory enjoyed by the primitive Christians. The kingdom of Christ is represented as engaged in constant conflict and as always being victorious. Christ reigns while his enemies are being conquered; "for he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet" (1 Cor. |